Well, to validate your resurrection, let me make a new post.
I have smoked a lot recently.
To qualify this, I have been with the Marines a lot lately. I have come to the decision lately, that when I leave the Marines, I will stop smoking. I view this, or the time between now and my EAS, as an opporunity to mature (something I personally view as a requirement to stop smoking) as well as the fact that stress, especially what I call 'mortal stress' will be somewhat reduced after my discharge.
I smoke when I drink. I smoke when I am on active military orders. I smoke when I am under exceptional duress, including the suicide of a fellow serviceman, death of a family member, or other similar circumstances. Situations that I feel are due for some sort of chemical subdue-ment(word?), which I consider nicotine and the many additives of cigarettes a mechanism of.
I don't support smoking for anyone who does not understand the true consequences of such. I support a 18+ drinking age, but a 21+ smoking age. It takes a lot of maturity (maturity I gained through unscrupulous means, through unnecessary duress and pain) and growth to really accept that when you smoke, you accept very dire consequence. Alcohol, however, is an ancient tradition that only carries health consequence in extreme abuse. Moderate alcohol consumption carries with it great health benefits. It is a delicate line, but nicotine is much more delicate because of the other consequences that it's related compounds carry in our day in age.
Nicotine itself has been identified as a stimulant similar to caffeine. However, many alternative nicotine delivery methods have been identified as including several nicotine related carcinogens. To ban these methods, while including regular cigarettes as a 'safer' approved method of nicotine ingestion is hypocritical and in my opinion immoral.
In the end, I personally think that e-cigarettes are a fun and semi-healthy way to replace cigarettes for a time. A true quitting strategy is superior, and I do not think they should be marketed as such, but they can be useful for reducing tar consumption nonetheless.
Epstein didn't kill himself.
